


once a general

by alittlelesspain



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 08:30:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12186531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlelesspain/pseuds/alittlelesspain
Summary: Astra tries to form a gang. It doesn’t go as planned.Written for the GD Monthly September 2017 prompt: Canon Divergence





	once a general

**Author's Note:**

> This is...crack. Like, so much crack, guys, followed by the requisite GD Emotions (TM), but I figure the fandom could use some light-hearted stuff, once in a while. It was inspired by that one text. You know, the one that's like "I tried to form a gang once, but it turned into a book club."

“Sorry, _what_ did you say?” Alex asks in disbelief. Surely she had misheard Astra, though the Kryptonian has a habit of enunciating her words to the point of theatricality.

“I’m going to form a gang.” Astra repeats patiently.

“A gang.” Alex echoes.

She had been sprawled over her sofa on a rare night off from the DEO, scrolling through various channels on the TV until Kara came by for their scheduled movie night, when Astra had strolled in through the door, from her own apartment opposite Alex’s.

Initially, Alex hadn’t thought much about it. Astra's habit of invading her apartment, and not always when Kara was due to visit,  had become such a frequent occurrence that Alex had just given up and left her apartment door unlocked, figuring that Astra’s Kryptonian strength could handle any burglar unfortunate enough to attempt entry.

That is, she hadn't thought much about it, until Astra had gravely announced her plan.

“Why?” Alex asks now.

Is Astra bored? Between her supervisory duties at the newly built conservatory, and her frequent assistance to the DEO, Alex would have thought there was work enough to keep even a Kryptonian occupied.

“I have been watching the news.” Astra says. She steamrolls right over Alex’s resulting groan at that. “There seems to be a lot of antipathy towards those like me, these days.”

“What does that have to do with you wanting to form a gang?” Alex demands. “Have you been watching The Godfather again? I told Kara not to show you that movie.”

“The Godfather is about the mob, Alex.” Astra explains, a little patronizingly, as she encroaches the sofa, ignoring the free space that Alex had cleared for Kara, and squeezing into Alex’s side instead. “I am simply forming a small group of others like me, to help protect those in the city who are attacked by anyone who would want us gone.”

Christ, Kryptonians and their complete disregard for anything approaching personal space. Alex does her best to ignore the warmth of the body pressed beside her. Going down that train of thought usually leads to the cessation of all higher processing faculties, and ends up with her blindly agreeing to whatever Astra proposes. Which, hell no. Alex needs all her wits about her, if she’s going to dissuade Astra from this newest ridiculous idea.

“Just call the DEO in, Astra.” she says. “Let _me_ know when there’s a problem, and I’ll handle it.”

“Oh, Alex.” Astra says fondly. “You are a truly formidable warrior with both knife and sword, and your accuracy with a gun is unparalleled by any other agent in your organization.”

She pronounces the praise with pride as well as fondness, and Alex feels all warm and tingly from head to toe, like the sun is shining on her. Which is ridiculous, because it’s nighttime.

“But...” Astra continues, drawing the conjunction out, “There is no need to call on DEO resources for petty harassment and abuse. Your government organizations are incompetent enough at managing your budget, without that. No, I will get together a group of others like me to handle these small matters. M’gann has agreed to help me recruit members.”

“Agree to help you, or agreed to go along with you because she was afraid of the havoc you’d wreak otherwise?” Alex asks, a perennial skeptic when it comes to Astra’s particular brand of extraterrestrial shenanigans.

Astra shrugs delicately.

“There was agreement.” she says. “That is all that matters.”

Alex sighs exasperatedly, knowing that argument would only lead to more obstinacy. Maybe Astra will just forget about it. After all, there’d been all that noise on the news about the Paris Accord, lately, which would surely occupy Astra’s attention in the coming weeks.

Chances were good, Alex decides, as Astra lays her head on her shoulders, and tries to make a grab for the remote, that her alien almost-roommate would forget all about this new idea.

\---

 

Astra doesn’t forget, and Alex is alerted of her gang’s first meeting by a loud caterwauling issuing from her apartment.

Alex, startled out of an afternoon nap that had stretched into the evening, after a trying night shift at the DEO lab, jumps out of bed and grabs her gun, before creeping towards her door, only to pinpoint the noise as coming from the apartment opposite her own.

She leaps over the hallway separating them, bursts through the unlocked door, to find ten shell-shocked aliens staring back at her.

“Alex,” Astra says disapprovingly, “If you have decided to join us after all, you are twenty minutes late.”

“I’m not-” Alex starts off, blinking, before her tone turns demanding. “What the hell is going on? The landlord’s going to kick you out, if you keep making that noise.”

“We are merely deciding on our battle chant.” Astra says, looking huffy.

“Your _what?_ ”

“If we must fight those who would attack our brethren,” another alien puts in, a Tamaranean by the looks of it, “We must have a chant to ride forth into battle with.”

“Ariel has a very good point.” Astra says, “She was just demonstrating her old squadron’s battle aria to us.”

The Tamaranean obligingly belts out a few more notes, which leads to a neighbour banging on the wall on the side of Astra’s apartment.

Alex, stymied, looks at M’gann, only to be met with a shrug.

“I think it’s better to just go with the flow at this point.” M’gann murmurs.

“Let us hear M’gann’s suggestion next.” Astra says, gesturing at the rest of the group to quiet down. “She says it is one of the great war hymns of her people.”

She beams at M’gann, and gestures at the anachronistic boom box next to her. The Martian presses play accordingly, giving Alex a wink as the speakers vibrate into action.

_“Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam_

_Come on and slam, if you wanna jam.”_

“I do like the rhythm of it.” Astra says thoughtfully, raising her voice to be heard over the music. “It is a good beat to march into battle with.”

“It’s nothing like the grand operas of my kind.” Ariel - the Tamaranean - says, doubtful. “However, I do like the ferocious vocal strength of the bard.”

Two Pyrutians nod in agreement, conversing excitedly with each other in their own language, too fast for Alex to follow.

Alex stares at the congregated group of aliens discussing the merits of the “battle chant”, before stepping forward and pressing the mute button on the player, and turning to M’gann.

“That’s the Space Jam theme song.” she informs her.

“It’s a great war hymn of my people.” M’gann maintains blandly.

“Stop disrupting us, Alexandra.” Astra commands. “Either give suggestions, or listen quietly, or go back to sleep. Kara tells me you worked “overtime” again, and the fatigue shows on your face.”

“Well, you’re no prize before coffee either.” Alex mutters, a little stung by that comment on her appearance, but mollified by the way Astra strokes her cheek, before taking her hand and leading her out of the apartment and into Alex’s own.

There is another stroke proffered, down the other side of her cheek, as well as a tight hug, before Astra takes her leave, and Alex stumbles back to bed practically soporific with contentment. She doesn’t even complain, later, about having to cover her head with a pillow, as Astra’s “gang” cycles through everything from intergalactic operas to broadway hits, in an effort to find their battle chant.

\---

 

“Can’t you stop her?” Alex asks, holding her half-eaten container of vanilla ice cream towards Kara, as her sister takes one final bite of her own tub of cookie dough flavor. “I didn’t realize she was actually going to keep going with this.”

She can hear faint murmurs, punctuated by periods of loud argument, coming from Astra’s apartment, where the door had been left wide open this time. According to Kara, who had dropped by there before making her way to Alex’s, Astra’s group was discussing ...a book?

“It’s not doing any harm.” Kara shrugs, swapping icecreams as Jon Snow gets stabbed on screen. “J’onn told me that M’gann told him that the most they’ve done is break up some street harassment. Nothing major.”

Alex hums doubtfully, while Kara turns back to the screen, and then quickly away again, as the gory scene proceeds.

“Tame.” Alex pronounces, as Kara stuffs her face into a pillow. “Maggie and I went to see _Jigsaw_ the other day, when Kate was out of town. Way more realistic blood splatter effects.”

“Turn it off, you sadist.” Kara moans, throwing a hand over her eyes overdramatically.

When Alex doesn’t, she lifts from the sofa with a huff, and heads for the door.

“I’m going to see what Aunt Astra is up to.”

“Chicken.” Alex accuses mildly, before turning back to the screen.

She watches the show for a couple more minutes, before curiosity gets the better of her, and she follows Kara, to see her sister stopped at the threshold of Astra’s apartment. Kara is staring silently into the living room, where nine aliens are intensely discussing their reading of _The_ _Art of War,_ while the tenth - M’gann - furtively plays Candy Crush on her phone.

“Do you need something, Kara?” Astra inquires, looking up from the discussion about Part X ( _Terrain),_ and beaming first at her niece, then at Alex.

Kara shakes her head, and grabs Alex’s arm.

“Just checking in.” she says, before dragging Alex back across the hallway.

“Only your family would turn a gang into a book club.” Alex snarks, opening the door to her own apartment.

She expects a smack on her arm for that comment, but when she looks to her side, her sister is simply grinning, just as wide as Astra had been.

“She’s making friends.” she whispers, like it’s the most miraculous thing in the world. “I was hoping this would happen.”

\---

 

The next week, Trekar, the Cyvillian in the group, brings in cookies.

Alex knows this because she’s just passing Astra’s door, when the heavenly scent of them assaults her nostrils, immediately getting a rumble from her stomach, and reminding her that she had skipped both breakfast and lunch that day.

“The special ingredient is _paranir.”_ The Cyvillian is saying proudly, when Alex rips the door open, watching the rest of the aliens grab for the fast-disappearing cookies. “It’s only found growing at the bottom of lava pits on my home planet. I had to have it specially imported.”

The whole group quiets as Alex steps inside, hands on her hips.

“Alexandra.” Astra drawls out. “I am glad your director forced you out of the office on time for once. Are you joining us?”

She tilts a head invitingly towards the plate of cookies.

“Ok, what?” Alex demands, officially fed up. “Book night was bad enough, but what the hell do cookies have to do with gangs?”

“Come now, Alex.” Astra says, disapproving. “You know we cannot strategize on an empty stomach. Trekar merely wanted to make sure we were well fed.”

“These are great!” Peter, one of the Pyrutians says. “They could use a bit more sugar, though.”

“Don’t be rude!” his sister, Alifraenya says, as the Cyvillian’s ears droop dejectedly. “They’re perfect the way they are!”

While the siblings bat at each other with their flippers, Astra holds out the tray of cookies to Alex.

“Fine.” Alex grumbles, taking one off the top. “But only because they-” she points at the Cyvillian watching her with bright and expectant eyes - “won’t stop looking at me like that.”

She exits, and turns into her own apartment as she munches on the cookie, throwing her bag on the sofa and making a beeline for the shower.

A quick wash and change into casual clothes later, an embarrassed but defiant Alex scuttles back into Astra’s apartment, and grabs five more cookies from the plate.

“These are really good.” she mumbles to Trekar, before glaring at a smug Astra, and hot-footing it out of the room.

“You can come back for more, if you want.” Astra calls after her.

\---

 

“How’s your little kumbayah club going?” Alex asks, the next week, as she leans back against her chair and studies Astra’s face in profile, while Astra studies the night sky.

Astra tends to barge into her apartment more often than not, on the nights that both her and Alex had off, but on this occasion, she had refused Alex’s usual offers to put on a documentary or cook dinner together, steering her instead to a quiet night stargazing, out on the balcony.

Astra moves closer to her, seemingly unconsciously, as she replies to Alex’s half-serious question. Alex wonders if she realizes that half of her body is basically squeezed into Alex’s chair at this point.

“We are drawing up shifts and dividing the city into patrolling areas.” Astra murmurs, as if afraid to disturb the night by being louder.

Her fingers curl and uncurl their way down Alex’s right arm, the pressure comfortingly firm. Alex snuggles into her in return, feeling her eyes close in contentment, as Astra’s head drops on top of her own, her breath shifting Alex’s hair every time she exhales.

“I don’t know why you put so much work into it.” Alex says, as she enters the first throes of sleep. “I thought you had your hands full with the conservatory, and with reconstructing the Omegahedron for J’onn.”

Astra’s replied confession is halting.

“My work at the conservatory is fulfilling.” she admits. “But ...it is solitary work. With the patrol...it feels nice, to have my own squadron again.”

Alex smiles into the sweater-clad arm that her face is currently pressed against, finally understanding another part of the complicated woman who had once been her enemy, and who is now as dear to her as family.

“Do you find it disruptive?” Astra sounds anxious now.

Alex shakes her head gently, both from sleepiness and from unwillingness to dislodge Astra’s head from its perch atop her own.

“Not if that’s what makes you happy.” she responds.”Whatever you want, general.”

She’s fast asleep, before Astra’s reply comes.

“Even you?”

\---

 

The next week, Astra gets hurt.

Alex gets the news while at a regular debriefing at the DEO, and J’onn doesn’t even try to stop her when she makes a hasty goodbye after Kara texts her the news, running out blindly in the direction of the medical bay.

Kara is in full swing by the time Alex bursts into the ward, absolutely raging at Astra, while Astra practically cowers from her niece’s wrath.

“I just got you back!” Kara is shouting. “Nine months into our reunion, and you go around fighting a Daxamite during a solar flare?”

“I wasn’t aware of the disruptive effects that such a phenomenon would have on my powers.” Astra protests meekly, as Kara looms over her.

Her reasoning falls on deaf ears, as Kara only begins on a new round of chastisement. Out of defenses to present, Astra turns to Alex in mute appeal.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Alex tells her, taking in Astra’s body that has cuts all over it, feeling the cold clamminess of panic take over her heart. “Don’t you dare expect me to get you out out this, you...you asshole!”

Contrary to Kara, her voice comes out low and thin and weak, almost giving away at the end.

Astra looks so pale, just like she had when Alex had stabbed her with that kryptonite sword all those months ago on the rooftop. Just as pale as she had, when her funeral pod had finally crashed back down to the earth, and Kara and Alex had pulled the near-lifeless body out with shaking hands. Just as she had looked, when they had first put her under the sunlamps, her heartbeat barely registering on the monitor.

And now, someone else had done to her what Alex had done, and Alex wants to scream her rage and grief out at the very thought of it.

“I’m fine, Alex.” Astra says, anxiously watching her face. “M’gann and Trakar subdued him before he could do serious damage.”

And god, Alex wants to understand, just like she tries to understand that Kara needs to do the Supergirl thing. But her acceptance has always hinged on her belief that her family is, quite literally, bulletproof. This exception to that rule being thrown in her face is as chilling as it always is.

Alex waits until Kara has shouted herself hoarse at Astra, then burst into tears and hugged her, and stomped out of the room, before she makes her own way over to the bed where the Kryptonian is restlessly lying. Alex takes the empty seat by the bed, content simply to watch Astra fidget in the tense silence.

“You are angry.” Astra says, after more fidgeting.

“Furious.” Alex corrects, resisting the urge to sink her head into her hands.

Isn’t it enough that she has to dream about the night she had stabbed Astra regularly, without having to actually see her like this, vulnerable and bleeding?

“Do you think I don’t worry about you, every night you go on your missions?” Astra asks.

“That’s different.” Alex shakes her head, “That’s my job. You don’t _have_ to do this, Astra.”

“I do.” Astra says firmly, “In the same way that you have to be a DEO agent, Alex. It is who we are, even if fear ties my heart into knots every time you leave without me.”

“Is that why you always insist on going on out-of-town assignments with me?” Alex ventures. She had thought, had _hope_ d that she had seen a pattern there, in how Astra always seemed to be by her side, on the most dangerous missions.

“Kara has her hands full with taking care of the city.” Astra says simply. “She would never forgive me, if I let you get hurt when you strike out on your own.” - her hand reaches out, grabbing one of Alex’s and pressing it against her own heart, before Alex even realizes what has happened - “and I would never forgive myself.”

Alex is half-embarrassed by the confession, but she also feels like she’s practically glowing all over, like Astra’s words are her own yellow sun.

“I’m still angry at you.” she sighs. “I..just...I still can’t get the image of me stabbing you out of my head. It fucking keeps me awake at night sometimes, Astra. And then you go and do this to yourself.”

“You shouldn’t have to be burdened by that.” Astra says, her face sorrowful. “You did your job. You protected your superior. I would never hold your actions on that night against you, Alex.”

“That makes it worse.” Alex says miserably. “I wish you’d ...that you’d yell at me or something. Blame me.”

“No.” Astra is shaking her head, but she’s also beckoning to Alex with her arms. “Come here.”

Alex folds herself into the outstretched arms, even if the angle is awkward, what with Astra lying down.

“If you need forgiveness, Alex, you’re forgiven. You were, a long time ago.”

Alex lets out a sigh, releasing pent-up stress that had been building up from when Kara had first sent the text alerting her to Astra’s injury. The warmth of Astra’s arms seeps into her own body, and she feels both anger and fear leaking out of her to make space for it, as they lie there entwined, deaf and blind to everything else.

\---

 

It takes two more days before Dr. Tamim deigns to release Astra from her stay in the medical bay, indomitably ignoring all hell that the Kryptonian raises in an attempt to be released earlier.

On the night she is released, Alex is surprised to find Astra standing at the doorway to her apartment, instead of Astra’s own. Astra looks uncharacteristically nervous, fiddling with the hem of her sweater, which is one that Alex recognizes.

“Is that mine?” Alex says, feeling a weird flip in her stomach when Astra nods.

Astra is standing in her doorway wearing her sweater, and her eyes are all hooded and soft and dark grey. It’s a heady combination, and maybe that’s why Alex stands rooted in place, as Astra advances into the room.

“You said-” Astra’s eyes are skittering around the living room, trying to land on anything except Alex’s gaze. “You said that you had trouble sleeping some nights. I heard your heartbeat yesterday, from the medical bay. You were awake again, I think.”

Alex takes a stilted breath. It _had_ been another one of those nights, yesterday. Another night when Alex’s hand had pulled the sword out, and Astra had slumped onto the roof, and Alex had woken up in a cold sweat.

But Astra’s arms are enveloping her, now, as she steers both Alex and herself to the bedroom.

“I thought I could join you, tonight.” Astra says, and she looks even more nervous now. “If you want, that is. I think I would like it too. I...I have...bad memories, too, Alex.”

Alex nods, but Astra just stands at the foot of the bed once they get there, still fidgeting, so that Alex has to physically maneuver her into the bed. Once on it, though, Astra practically melts against Alex, and relaxes so that every ounce of tension is gone from her frame.

Astra’s body pressed against her own is doing all sorts of things to Alex, but she tries to ignore them as she settles herself in, and just focuses on getting her breathing back to normal again. It would be pretty embarrassing if Astra questioned her about her elevated heartbeat. Alex isn’t sure she’ll be able to lie, not when they’re in such an intimate position.

Her body does calm down a little, though, when Astra starts rubbing soothing circles against her back, perhaps misunderstanding Alex being keyed up as just restlessness.

Slipping into a blissful stupor from the feel of it, Alex barely registers Astra whispering fond endearments in Kryptonese against her hair, or the fact that Astra has moved closer, pressed even more intimately to Alex’s body.

Her eyes do fly open though, when Astra presses the first soft kiss, against the side of her face, as trembling fingers sweep Alex’s hair out of the way.

\---

 

Astra stiffens and pulls away immediately afterward, but Alex doesn’t let her retreat, instead moving forward with her.

“What was that?” she demands, as Astra looks away.

She feels like she’s burning all over, ignited by that one brief press of lips, and spurred on further by the fact that this is Astra pressed against her, on _her_ bed, wearing _her_ sweater.

“What the hell, Astra?” Alex pursues, when Astra’s silence persists. “I deserve an answer.”

Astra turns to look back at her then, looking just as irritated and keyed up as Alex feels.

“I kissed you.” she replies heatedly. “Satisfied, Alexandra?”

Instead of replying, Alex seeks out Astra’s mouth, desperate to feel her lips again.

Astra evades her searching mouth, lifting up and away from Alex’s reach.

“We can’t-” she says, before stopping and starting again, “Alex, I didn’t mean to ambush you like that. I don’t want to rush you into anything.”

“I’ve been fucking fantasizing about this for _months_ , Astra.” Alex growls. “And now you’ve finally made a move, and you’re chickening out?”

Astra’s eyes flash when she says that, and she lowers herself down immediately and kisses Alex again, quick and crushingly hard. Alex meets it with equal fervour, clamping both arms around Astra’s back, and hooking over leg over her thighs to keep her in place.

Astra pulls back from the kiss too fast for it to be satisfactory, and when Alex mumbles out a complaint, she returns it with soft kisses over her face. It’s ...nice, the soft presses peppered against her skin, but it’s doing nothing at all to soothe the fire that Alex feels burning up through her.

“Harder.” she mumbles, grabbing at Astra’s face with her own hands, bringing her lips back to hers with a demanding roughness, and holding them in place.

And it feels good, when Astra kisses her more firmly this time, and when her thigh slips down into where Alex’s own legs meet, kneading up into her, but it’s still not where Alex needs it to be.

“I won’t break, Astra.” Alex growls out, “ _Harde-.”_

She gasps in the middle of the word, when Astra’s thigh thrusts against her core, rough and hard and _perfect,_ even through the fabric of the slacks that alex is wearing. Astra keeps that rhythm, as she pins Alex’s shoulders against the sheets with bruising force, and kisses her over and over again, unrelentingly, pausing only to let Alex take shallow breaths in-between, before covering her mouth again, like she’s trying to steal the air back before it even makes it way down to Alex’s lungs.

It’s a long time before Alex is making any sounds other than moans and gasps, or Astra’s name.

“Was that...what did you say...hard enough?” Astra asks smugly, when Alex rocks up against her one final time, and slumps limply back in the bed, still fully clothed, but feeling utterly spent.

“Fuck-” is the first word Alex gets out, before gritting her teeth, reaching out, and grabbing at Astra’s torso, flipping her over.

Astra just looks up at her, all soft and wide-eyed, and Alex’s rough retort flies from her head. She reaches down to press her face into the crook of Astra’s neck instead, sucking softly at the skin, as Astra’s hair cocoons her.  

Astra is murmuring something low and fast, as Alex works her way down, tongue trailing over the raised bone of her clavicle, nipping then and again at the hollow of skin. The words seem to be English and Kryptonese all mixed up into something unintelligible, as Astra code-switches too haphazardly for Alex to follow.

Alex smiles and tugs Astra’s borrowed sweater up, and leaves another set of bites, this time down the valley of Astra’s breasts. There’s something incredibly gratifying about reducing a haughtily eloquent Kryptonian to incoherency; it spurs Alex on to be more passionate with her attentions. Astra squirms underneath her when Alex sucks a nipple into her mouth, and bucks when she scrapes her teeth against it.

“Alex-” Astra breathes out, finally one understandable word out of the garbled mess she had been mumbling earlier. “ _Alex_.”

Alex nods in acknowledgement without lifting her head from Astra’s breasts, but when Astra bucks up again, thrusting her hips, she takes the hint and slips her hand down, scrabbling past the seam of Astra’s sweatpants.

Astra slips back into unintelligible strings of words when Alex’s fingers slip into her, except this time they’re a lot louder, punctuated by heady gasps whenever Alex thrusts into her. Then she just goes all silent, panting into the quiet night while Alex keeps pressing kisses down her torso, and her fingers keep working inside Astra, trying to figure out what angles and pressure her body seems to like.

Astra lets out another gasp when she comes, and goes still under Alex. The stillness only lasts a few minutes, before she’s rising again like an avalanche, to grab Alex and crush her down against her own body. Alex presses down accordingly, and Astra runs a thumb in circles around Alex’s cheek, over and over again, as she starts murmuring again, lapsing now into slower Kryptonese that Alex can actually follow.

>>I have wanted this for so long.<<

“You have?” Alex mumbles. “Why didn’t you say something sooner, Astra?”

>>You never said anything, either.<< The reply is both accusing and melancholy, as if mourning the hours they had lost by not confessing their desires sooner.

“We still have time.” Alex assures her quickly, unwilling to let Astra return to her mourning of things she had lost. Not right now, when they are starting something this wonderful and new. “We have so much damn time, Astra. Me and you and Kara and _everyone._ ”

Astra smiles tremulously at that, and that’s when Alex says it. It’s unusual, because she doesn’t usually address Astra in Kryptonese without being prompted to first, either directly or by context. This time, though, the word slips out without conscious thought behind it, perhaps spurred on by everything Astra had been murmuring to her.

>>Beloved.<<

Suddenly, Alex is aware of Astra’s hands tightening around her arm, hard enough that there’ll probably be a mark there the next day.

“You love me?” Astra asks her wide-eyed.

It doesn’t even occur to Alex to be nervous, or to refuse. It feels instinctual, instead, to reach down and press more kisses, gentle in contrast to her demanding roughness earlier, down Astra’s face, and jaw, and neck.

“Of course I love you, you useless alien.’ Alex says fondly, at the end of it. “Enough even to put up with all your weird ideas.”

Astra smiles at her like a midnight sun, and then snuggles into her, before Alex drifts into an uninterrupted sleep, held fast through the night by arms as strong as iron.

(She regrets that last sentence a lot more the next day, though, when she wakes up late, around noon, to voices in the next apartment singing out of tune to “We Will Rock You.”

Apparently, Astra’s gang had found their battle chant at last.)

\---

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, I just...this was an idea that I sort of had in the back of my mind for a while, to fill for the September prompt, but I didn't think I would have time to finish it before the month end. But, I was working on my other WIP and it was getting a bit dark and depressing, so I took a break to get this out quick yesterday night, and writing it had the desired effect of cheering me up :P I hope you enjoy it too! :D
> 
> I'm on tumblr at @alittlelesspain, as usual :)


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